Life just got really bad, really quick. I need some advice.

So it's not the same as cutting apart the oil filter and checking that, but I just removed the dipstick, wiped it clean, put it back in and pulled it out and checked it in the sunlight.  No glittery stuff whatsoever.  I really don't feel it's anything to do with a rod, piston, or ring.  My wife is looking up stuff about timing chains and she also found a guy with a 2012 Mustang like mine and his timing chain tensioner failed after 5700 miles.  There's plenty other stories about timing chains and they all sound like mine.  Also on a car repair website:

Symptoms of a Bad or Failing Timing Chain Tensioner

1. Engine may stall or run rough.
2. Noise in the front of the engine (a rattle or rumble, associated with engine speed)

I have the car back home now and I'm going to focus on changing the water pump and timing chain tensioner.

In reply to infinitenexus :

Doing oil change and cut the filter open to check for metal before doing that. You need to diagnose what's wrong before throwing parts at it. I'm an agreement from multiple weeks ago and thinking it's the timing chain tensioner or guides, as I posted in your other thread. but that doesn't mean that you buy the parts and you go that route and do it without verifying what's up first. 

Do an oil change cut the filter open, check for metal. Rent a compression tool pool spark plugs do a compression test. 

Do those things before going on to step B. 

I think if the water pump bearing was making that noise, you would see coolant coming out of the weep hole. 

You can't afford to throw parts at this or spend a ton of time tearing into this if it doesn't need it. If you do that stuff and you're wrong, you've just spent a bunch of time, money and effort on what's likely a junked engine.

Do your best to actually rule out certain things. Narrow it down as much as you can with little or no money before you go spending cash on a water pump or new chain guides. If it ends up being the timing chain guide, you can do the water pump at the same time while you're in there anyway, but do a little bit of work to narrow it down first.

In reply to STM317 :

100% 

That's why I'm so infuriated with the dealership. He literally went there for a diagnosis, and they didn't diagnose it. There is no way that vehicle would have left my shop without authorization to do an oil change so we could cut open the filter and check the contents and approval to do a compression test in order to diagnose the issue and see if the oil pan needs to be dropped upon for further investigation. 

He took the car to the dealership with the intent impression that he was going to be spending 12 to $1,400 on a repair. They weren't willing to perform $300 worth of diagnosis to confirm and get approval to do the repair. Had the dealer confirmed the diagnosis he likely would have gone for the water pump in addition to the timing chain and tensioner. This whole ordeal has just been nothing but a failure all the way around. I'd love to have audio or digital communication of the back and forth to diagnose where things went wrong on any or all sides. 

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

In short, I explained to them the problem with the car and that I need TSB-0156 done to fix it.  I also told them to go ahead and diagnose it just to make sure.  They called me a few hours later and their mechanic said he would do the TSB but it would be a waste of money because he was certain it was a rod knock.  What was interesting was that he even told me later when I went in to talk to him that I could cut the oil filter in half and look for metal shavings - but that's something they didn't bother doing in their shop.  

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, they definitely could've done more. Dec 23 is a rough time to show up and say "hey, why is my engine making this knocking noise" too. I think you're right that they didn't want to deal with it. Maybe it was laziness, maybe they didn't think they could get parts until after the New Year and didn't want it taking up shop space that could be filled with a bunch of gravy brake jobs or something during that time. Either way, OP needs to do a bit of work to educate himself so he can make informed choices. That way if he wants to have it repaired somewhere, he can go into it without being completely blind.

In reply to infinitenexus :

So here's the thing. You never diagnose a car for a shop. You take it to the shop for the peace of mind that they are going to fix it and repair it and take care of it, you entrust them in doing so. Otherwise you'd look up things on YouTube and take 6 weeks and feel your way through it. Enduring those 6 weeks you'd make another 300 plus dollar payment (which you've already done since the rod knock noise started on November 27th when you posted the initial post) and another insurance payment. you'd be over 700 in on car payments and insurance and opportunity cost in doing it yourself before you even pay for the parts to DIY it. So you take it to the shop to have them diagnose, and likely fix the vehicle. 

You should never tell them information on the TSB and say I want this done. The service writer should have stopped you in your tracks. An inquired why you think it needs to be done? Upon being told that there's a noise and you did some research and you found this TSB and the noise sounds the same. The service writer should have said well let's do an oil change cut the filter open check for metal to ensure that there's no internal damage is there some other things that can cause a similar noise. We should also do a compression check. If all of that checks out, we'll go ahead and start pulling the timing covers. If there's any sign that there might be something else going on, I'll have a quote for you ready to go a little bit more in depth and dropping the oil pan and see what might be going on, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Then they should ask confirmation from you that makes sense. 

You need the peace of mind that the measures that are going to be taken are the corrective measures to fix the vehicle. You've paid nearly $400 an opportunity cost via car payment and insurance for the past month without securing that knowledge or peace of mind. If you order the parts they're likely won't get here before the first of the year. And it will be working on the ground under jack stands doing a very intensive job in confined spaces, when you haven't done an oil change in a month to do the first check of what could possibly be wrong. 

Get it diagnosed. You've already more than paid the cost of diagnosis and opportunity cost. And you'll double down if you try to DIY it with zero confirmation or clarity that you're actually fixing the problem. 

I'd also call up to SCT, they're outside of Orlando, and ask what shops in the area they would recommend to service a 12 GT mustang. I would take the vehicle to wherever they recommend. 

Captdownshift should be promoted to Majdownshift.

Was this a Ford dealer? Geez

How many days has this been and you haven't cut the filter open yet? Dude get on it.

In reply to captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

I -always- diagnose the car for them.

Because whoever 'them' is nearly always sucks at it.

Yeah, is anyone here surprised that a dealership sucks?

A business model and industry that is only around because of their well-developed lobbying power? Very few of whom actually care about providing a good customer experience?

+1 for diagnose it yourself, +1 for do it now

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

It sucks. Right now I need to take my wife's car in for service and diagnosis on a problem. I called the dealer yesterday and talked to my service advisor, who has been great with me. He said it was his last day until next year, I told him I would wait until jan 4th. 

Some people are good some suck. I went through 3 different service advisors at that dealership until I got this one. The others are still there and they probably are still screwing most of their customers. 

I just posted to check the pan and filter for debris in the other thread. It's easy and should give a pretty good degree of certainty.

If it were me, I'd *really* want to know it's a bottom end issue vs the possible timing chain problem.

I 213th( or whatever it's up to) , cut the filter open and compression check it.

Firing the parts cannon at it is usually useless

I'm not sure I'm right, but I'll at least throw out another option.

It's been weeks. You still haven't cut open the filter. You're still driving the car. It seems like this situation isn't conducive to fixing that engine.

I'd be tempted to find a mechanic looking for side work and pay them to swap a used truck motor into the car, then quickly get rid of it. That's probably the option with the most likely odds of ending well.

Sell the engine they remove from the car as a "Good used engine that you think needs the TSB performed." Play the video and say you replaced it because you were scared to open it up. Be completely honest and hope they assume you're just scared of the unknown. You'll probably get most of your junkyard money back.

In reply to Tom Suddard :

Just for clarification, I'm not still driving the car regularly.  I only drove it to the dealership today because it's 2-3 miles away.  If I need to go somewhere and the wife has the Prius, I take my challenge Civic, in all its glory.  The Mustang has mostly sat for the last two weeks or so, while I fretted and stressed about it.  I'm autistic so things like this sometimes overwhelm me.

I bought all the stuff to cut open the oil filter but I don't really have a safe way to jack up the car here - my driveway is basically soft dirt covered in sugar sand.  I tried placing the jack on a concrete pad and it almost immediately snapped it in half and dug it straight into the dirt.  Tomorrow morning I'll pick up a set of ramps to drive the car up on.  I expect the filter to be devoid of metal bits, but we'll find out for sure tomorrow.  I'd feel more comfortable on ramps anyways, I hate being under a car when it's just on jack stands.  It never feels fully safe to me.

What would a compression test tell you about the bearings? I think if the bearing was so far gone to give you a lower reading in that cylinder, the car would not have made it to the dealer and back, no?

I had a couple of cars with rod knock and it would mostly manifest itself at anything over 3k rpms on those engines. By the time it got bad enough to were it knocked at idle the engine lasted very few miles. 

In reply to Slippery (Forum Supporter) :

The car seems to run pretty well other than the horrific noises it makes.  The noise is there at all RPM - and as shown in that one video, sometimes it changes to a metallic squeak/scratching sound, which is exactly what's described in the TSB.  And the noise is pretty clearly coming from the front of the engine, towards the top.  I am also curious about what a compression test would tell me about bearings - from my understanding, that would diagnose something more like bad rings or a busted valve.  My car doesn't seem to have any of the symptoms that involve rings or valves, though.  

In reply to Slippery (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks for asking that. I was wondering the same thing. Im finishing up a rebuild on a 4 cylinder engine that had trashed rod bearings due to a failed oil pump but had excellent compression in all cylinders.

The reality is this: the  20 something year old tech at the Ford dealer is making $20/hr flat rate and doesnt have time dick around on a decade old car that the customer will not pay to have fixed at dealer rates & prices. So he say  "new motor" to get rid of a headache. Either the customer goes away or approves a $10K job with 22 hours of labor. The problem gets fixed 100% with option B and with option A, the tech is free to make hours on other 'gravy' cars.

This is the reality of taking you car in to a Ford dealer for anything outside of warranty work.

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

 They weren't willing to perform $300 worth of diagnosis to confirm and get approval to do the repair.

They supposed to eat that $300 or is infinitenexus supposed to pay for it? Maybe they offered and he said he did not have $300 to pay for diag, so they told them what they thought it was. I don't know, but that's a possibility isn't it?

We had a kid die under a car in our neighborhood this year (2020 sucks).  He was using ramps. 

Down where you are in sugar sand, those ramps need to be on plywood.

Also once you take the filer off you can't run the engine.

Better to take the valve cover off first and look at cams. valve train and chains, etc.  You might even to be able to start it with valve cover off to zero in on noise.

Most bad noises stop, or at least lessen, when you release the throttle.   So, that doesn't mean anything.   But, if you have now driven over 4 miles, and it was a rod, it would have gotten progressively worse.    Besides if it is a rod you aren't set up to do anything about it.  Because the crank will require work.      IMHO you need to focus first on the top end.

If you don't have all of the stuff for a full oil change, you can also just change the filter and top off when you are done.